OAKLAND — Mayor Libby Schaaf and Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney did not violate the city’s ethics rules by helping themselves to free tickets to attend Golden State Warriors’ playoff games and other marquee events, an investigator with the city’s Ethics Commission has found.

Instead, the investigator found lax city policies that swung open the gates to Oakland leaders for some of the hottest events in town.

The controversial ticket policy came under fire in 2016 when this news organization and others reported that officials routinely snapped up free Warriors tickets, especially for NBA playoff games. Gibson McElhaney claimed a whopping $320,000 in free tickets between January 2015 to September 2016, including four seats to Game 7 of the NBA Finals, valued at $40,000. Even though she was accompanied by family members, she claimed she was attending the game on official city business.

But an ethics commission staffer excused the behavior because Gibson McElhaney fulfilled the only requirement the city rules laid out: To fill out forms stating her attendance at that game and others were part of her “official duties.” She needed no other proof.

A former member of the ethics commission blasted the finding. Stephen Shefler, a retired Chief Deputy U.S. Attorney for Northern California, said it was clear Gibson McElhaney was just taking advantage of an elite perk.

“That’s the reality of it,” said Shefler, the former commissioner, noting a lack of any notes or reports showing any official business was performed.

But since Gibson McElhaney filled out the required city forms, Chief of Enforcement Milad Dalju recommended she be cleared of ethics violations, documents show. The staff has reached a similar conclusion about Schaaf’s use of free tickets.

The commission is scheduled to vote on the matters Tuesday. Violations could have cost $5,000 each.

Commission investigations of other council members and city officials remain ongoing.

Gibson McElhaney attended events at the Coliseum complex 73 times between January 2015 and September 2016, according to commission records.

Reached Friday, Gibson McElhaney defended the ticket use.

“It’s that the report affirms what we said all along, that we did not do anything wrong,” Gibson McElhaney said. She said the council should consider policy changes on how tickets are uhey are crying out for the delivery of homeless services, illegal dumping, and a whole bunch of quality of lifsed but said it is not the top priority in her West Oakland district. “My constituents are not crying out for this. Te issues.”

Schaaf personally took 18 sets of tickets valued at $54,000, according to the report. During the same period, 90 sets went to city employees and 53 to reward a community member. Schaaf told investigators “she felt that as the Mayor she is expected to have a certain minimal awareness of Oakland sports teams and their facilities, so she tried to go to at least one game a year for each team,” the report said.

Justin Berton, a spokesman for Schaaf, said the report showed the mayor’s office properly documented its tickets “in a timely and transparent manner.”

“The mayor’s office regularly donates tickets to city employees, Oakland charities, or provides them to public schools and nonprofits to auction for the benefit of all resident,” he said.

The commission’s executive director, Whitney Barazoto, said she could not discuss the recommendation because commissioners have not yet voted on it.

The city is co-owner of both the Oracle Arena and the Oakland Coliseum along with Alameda County. Contracts with the A’s and Warriors give each government a free luxury box at each venue. The joint city-county authority that runs the complex also gets a free box.

Elected and appointed officials can attend unlimited events as long as they complete paperwork attesting that their attendance is official business, like making sure the buildings are well run. They can also give the tickets to non-profits, schools, students, staff members and community members.

While the commission is poised to clear Gibson McElhaney, it has also called for the city to change the way the tickets are distributed to events.

City officials have a “cavalier attitude” about the free tickets, it found, and the process for reporting how they are used is out of date, the commission wrote in a report last year. It called for most tickets to be given away and for elected and appointed officials to use them sparingly, especially for playoff games.

“The Public Ethics Commission firmly believes the city’s policy must change,” Barazoto wrote in an email. She’s pushing for the council to take up a new policy next month.

The Alameda County Civil Grand Jury also ripped the use of free tickets by county supervisors and appointed officials earlier this year, noting they also claim going to events on official business, like inspecting the venues, but don’t document doing any work.

“If real inspections were conducted, one would expect some reporting of findings and recommendations, but multiple witnesses told us that written inspection reports have never been prepared by officials attending events, and that seldom do officials even make oral reports about facility conditions,” grand jurors wrote.

In Oakland, the ticket controversy isn’t Gibson McElhaney’s only problem, however. She still faces an $8,625 penalty for a separate investigation. According to a ruling by an administrative law judge, Gibson McElhaney received an estimated $800 worth of services from an architectural firm to oppose a town house project being built next to her home. At the time, she and the council voted to approve city contracts with the same company.

Commissioners on Tuesday will vote to approve the administrative law judge’s finding that the councilwoman accepted gifts from a company contracted by the city, failed to disclose the gifts and had a financial interest at stake.